


Another Sky

by HopefulNebula



Category: Futurama
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bechdel Test Pass, Gen, Vignettes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 16:42:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17005308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopefulNebula/pseuds/HopefulNebula
Summary: Scenes from a life Leela never lived.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gaialux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaialux/gifts).



On the day Leela was born, her parents decided to take her to the orphanarium and pass her off as an alien. If it hadn't been for the clouds shifting just so that night, exposing the surface to moonlight, Munda would have succeeded.

The next night, she had almost made it to the door when she saw another person, also in a hood, also carrying a basket. They didn't seem to be a fellow mutant. Better not to risk it.

After that, Munda decided she couldn't bear to try the dropoff herself anymore, so on the third night after Leela's birth, Morris took a turn.

The less said about his encounter with the guard emu, the better.

By the time the tide rolled out the next morning, Morris and Munda had decided that the universe wanted their daughter to stay, and vowed never to leave her.

* * *

"Mom?" Leela asked Munda one afternoon as they were walking home from school.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Why can't we go to the surface?"

Munda tried not to sigh. She'd been hoping to avoid this conversation for at least another couple of years. But she wasn't about to lie to Leela either. Before she could decide what to say, Leela continued.

"Vyolet says there are monsters up there that only eat mutants, but her mom says the humans are just afraid of us."

That was as good a starting point as any. "There aren't any mutant-eating monsters on the surface," Munda said.

Leela nodded her approval. "I guess they'd get hungry up there."

Munda smiled and held out a tentacle for Leela to hold. "You're right. And... Vyolet's mom is also right. There's a lot of reasons we're not allowed on the surface, but mostly it's because the people up there just think we're scary."

"Well, that's stupid," Leela said. "We're not scary! Not even Larry!"

"I know, honey. Some things just aren't fair, though. You know what? Your Nanna actually went to the surface when she was your age, on the Land Titanic. When she comes for dinner on Sunday you can ask her about it."

Leela smiled at that, and jumped in the puddle in front of her.

"Someday, kiddo," Munda said. "You're gonna be the one, I just know it."


	2. Chapter 2

"You know I'm not chicken," Leela said, "and stop insulting Chicken Mutant."

Chicken Mutant clucked his thanks from somewhere in the crowd.

"Fine," Larry said. "Prove it. I bet you can't spend three hours on the surface without being caught."

"What's in it for me if I win?" Leela asked. Honestly, just winning the bet against a floater like Larry would be enough for her, but it wouldn't do to let _him_ know that.

"I pick up your shifts at the Burger Bin for a week, and give you the money. But if you get caught, you do the same for me at Stenchy's."

"You're on," Leela said. "Just let me tell my parents I'm hanging out with Vyolet and I'll meet you back here."

"Get your camera too."

* * *

The rules were simple: Leela had to stay above ground for at least three hours. She had to re-enter the sewers at the same place she'd left. She had to have pictures documenting the whole three hours. She had to bring something interesting back from the surface. And she couldn't just spend the whole time hiding.

Not that she'd do that last one. This was the _surface_ they were talking about. Leela suspected the hardest part of the whole thing would be going back when it was over.

She'd seen pictures and videos on the computer. She'd been looking up through the grates as long as she could remember. But nothing could have prepared her for how _tall_ it all was.

She was so busy looking at the buildings and the people around her that she was completely stunned when she walked straight into a passing man in a fancy suit.

"Hey!" he shouted, barely slowing down. "Watch it!"

In the couple of seconds it took Leela to recover her breath, he was gone.

A woman behind Leela knelt to help her up. "Are you o- hey, what's with the eye?"

Leela glared. At least she'd come prepared for the question. "I'm _fine_ , thanks for asking. I'm an exchange student from Cyclopia."

The woman seemed to accept this, and walked away herself.

So far, so good.

* * *

After her fifth human interaction, she was starting to get bored with answering The Question. But she still had more than two hours to go, and a bag full of smelly change to spend, so she started changing her answers.

"Land shark attack."  
"I hide the other one in random places so I can spy on people."  
"I dunno. What's with your mouth?"

That last one got her stared at some more, but kind of in a good way.

* * *

For a while she just walked anywhere that caught her attention. There was so much going on above the ground that she'd have been pleased with anything, and she found that as long as she didn't _look_ too interested in things, she wouldn't stand out. But Leela eventually wanted more. So when she found herself standing at a tube entrance, she decided to try her luck with one of the few places in the city whose name she knew.

"Vampire State Building," she said, and a rush of air lifted her up.

It reminded her a little of the times she'd raced with Mordenna through the sewers, except more crowded and maybe a little stinkier. The person in front of her - a Neptunian, if Leela remembered her mother's lessons right - may have been screaming in terror, but Leela just wanted to cheer. The view was spectacular even in motion, and she was briefly sad when the tube deposited her feet-first on the ground. When she looked up at the building in front of her though, all was forgotten. She couldn't _wait_ to get to the top.

* * *

Leela returned to her grate to find a crowd. It seemed like her whole class was waiting for her. All the better to see their faces when she opened her bag and pulled out a glitter globe with a miniature version of New New York inside.

Leela immediately regretted handing over her camera for Larry's inspection, but only because without it she couldn't capture his face as he scrolled through the photos. Without a word, he handed it back to her and slithered off.

"I'll call my boss to let him know your plans," she shouted after him. If Larry flipped her off from the shadows, Leela couldn't quite tell. And anyway, she had more important things on her mind.

Like what she was going to do the next time she went to the surface.


	3. Chapter 3

As much as Leela enjoyed her life - both below ground and above - there were times when it all got to be too much. Every once in a while she needed to be the only person in sight.

Thankfully, she knew a place for that.

Out here she could be as alone as she needed, but not too lonely. Which was why the sound of footsteps behind her was so jarring. Before she could turn around, though, she heard a voice.

"Hey, where - whoa!" the man behind her said. If he was a mutant, he looked even more human than she did. Of course, his reaction to seeing her face was unmistakably human.

He recovered admirably, though.

"This is so cool, you're the first alien I've ever met!"

There were enough odd things about that statement that she didn't know where to begin, so Leela just shrugged and dealt with the obvious one. "Sewer mutant, actually."

The stranger shrugged back. "You're the first sewer mutant I've ever met too. Anyway, where are we right now?"

"The ruins of Old New York," Leela said. "You've really never met an alien before? Even in New New York?"

The man blushed, his cheeks turning a color that didn't quite match his hair.

"We don't - didn't - have aliens when I'm from," he said. "I accidentally got frozen, and I just woke up yesterday and they want me to be a delivery boy, and the cops and a cryogenics guy are chasing me because I don't want to be a delivery boy, and the tube thingy dropped me here and-"

Leela took one of the man's hands in hers. He looked down between them, temporarily shocked into silence.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Fry," the man said. He was smiling now, for the first time since she'd seen him. "What's yours?"

"Leela." One more look at the stranger's - Fry's - face and she knew what she had to do.

"Come on," she said. "The surface people only go into Sewer City if someone actually misses something they flushed. You can hide out down here until they get bored looking for you."

She wasn't sure whether this was a good choice, or whether it would end well, but she took one more glance at Fry and knew it was the right one.

* * *

The walk back to the city was slower than usual. It wasn't that they had to be careful (although Leela thought it may be best if nobody saw Fry for the first day or so, just in case). It was that he kept stopping to ask questions about Leela or the 31st century, or to remark on things he saw. Even a crushed Slurm can was a source of fascination for him, even after Leela explained that Slurm tasted like what you get when you squeeze a moldy lemon through a gym sock. And then:

"Hey, if you're not allowed on the surface, how do you know so much about it anyway?"

"I've been visiting since I was sixteen," Leela replied. "I look human enough that people just ignore me or ask stupid questions. Mostly I go up to get things we can't find or make on our own. And I've been putting up mutant rights posters on the front of city hall."

Fry smiled. "So you're kind of a delivery girl," he said. "Maybe it's not so bad here."

Leela couldn't see her own face, but she knew from Fry's flustered reaction that it matched the emotions racing through her heart.

"No!" he said. "That's not what I mean. I mean... I don't know what I mean. But when I delivered pizza, I hated it. My boss yelled at me and people made fun of me and my girlfriend was cheating on me. But when you held my hand earlier, it was the first time in a thousand years that I thought maybe everything was going to be fine."

It was Leela's turn to freeze in shock. She'd never thought about herself that way before.

Before she could think of a response, a distant sound caught her attention.

"Come on, we should get back before the tide comes in," she said. 

Before she turned back toward the city, she took Fry's hand once again, just for his safety. The path ahead was dark, after all. She couldn't have either of them getting lost.


End file.
